Heroes of War: Remains of WWII West Scranton soldier to receive military burial at Arlington National Cemetery

West Scranton native Harold Kenner, a private first class with the Army's 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, went missing in action on Sept. 30, 1944, while fighting in the Allies' ill-fated Operation Market Garden. His remains, found 24 years ago in a grave in the Netherlands, were recently identified, and will be laid to rest with full military honors on July 29 at Arlington National Cemetery. The Rhine Bridge, above, was the main target of Operation Market Garden.

For more than half a century, the family of Pfc. Harold Kenner lived with the agony of never quite knowing what became of the young soldier.

They don't have to anymore. Sixty-seven years after he disappeared, the West Scranton native is finally coming home.

On the morning of July 29, a few dozen of Pfc. Kenner's family members will travel to Arlington National Cemetery, where the World War II veteran's remains will be given a proper military burial. A member of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment's G Company, the 20-year-old Pfc. Kenner went missing in action in September 1944 during the infamous Operation Market Garden, a significant setback for the Allied Forces in the early months of the invasion of Nazi-controlled Western Europe.

Pfc. Kenner's remains were first discovered in 1987 in the Kiekberg Woods near Groesbeek, Netherlands, but were only recently determined to be his, thanks to DNA samples taken from two of his first cousins, Jane Behlke and Paul McElhenny, both of Scranton.

The funeral will include a band, body bearer team of six, bugler, caisson, escort and firing party. In addition, the Kenner family will receive Pfc. Kenner's impressive collection of postmortem honors, among them the Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars and Bronze Arrowhead Device, World War II Victory Medal and, most notably, the Purple Heart.

"He'll get them just like he died yesterday. That's the good thing," said Sgt. Greg Hinkle, the Army's liaison to the Kenner family.

Close to 50 extended members of the family are expected to attend the funeral, according to Pfc. Kenner's nephew, Richard Kenner, who was just a year old when his uncle went MIA.

"We're jumping up pretty good. It'll be such an honor going up there and attending that funeral," said Richard Kenner, a resident of Amelia Island, Fla.

"I was glad they found them. ... After all those years, it was a surprise," said Mrs. Behlke, an East Mountain resident now in her early 90s.

Allied offensive

The largest airborne operation in the war up to that point, Operation Market Garden was the Allies' attempt to seize a succession of bridges over the main rivers of the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, allowing them to outflank the Siegfried Line and advance into Northern Germany. Ultimately, the mission failed, and ended the Allies' hopes of ending the war by the end of 1944.

Market Garden had a huge airborne component, and employed the use of gliders to place troops, supplies and even jeeps on the ground in coordinated drop zones in enemy-controlled territory. Members of the 325th and 401st Glider Infantry regiments, including Pfc. Kenner's G Company, dropped into an area around Grave and the Waal River in Nijmegen on Sept. 23, 1944, according to a report put together by the Army that was given to the Kenner family.

"They landed right in the middle of the German army. In his case, they parachuted in the gliders," Richard Kenner said. "They knew they were going behind enemy lines, and they knew the odds weren't good. The sacrifices these guys made were unreal."

Over the next week, Pfc. Kenner and his fellow soldiers were repeatedly attacked by the Germans. The wet, dense woods made it difficult for the men to navigate, and the weather resulted in rusted, jammed guns.

On the morning of Sept. 30, the woods were lit up with a relentless barrage of artillery fire on both sides. Company commanders were ordered to move onward and continue the attack, despite the fact that their wounded were left in German positions. Heavily armed, the enemy held positions on both flanks.

As the day wore on, G Company's communication lines broke down amid the chaos, leaving soldiers separated from their platoons and scattered throughout the dense woods. When the day finally ended, G Company had sustained heavy casualties, while five men were MIA, including Pfc. Kenner.

The news eventually made its way to the home of the young soldier's parents, Henry and Pearl Kenner, on North Hyde Park Avenue in West Side.

"The day we heard that news, it was terrible," said Mrs. Behlke, who was especially close to Pfc. Kenner's sister, Ruth.

A year later, on Oct. 1, 1945, the War Department, despite never recovering a body, issued a finding of death for Pfc. Kenner. In the years that followed, the Kenners rarely ever vocalized the lingering pain they carried for their youngest son, said Richard Kenner, who grew up in Endicott, N.Y., where his father, Henry, worked for IBM.

"It was very difficult for them to talk about it. My grandfather would say a few things about Harold, but not much," he said.

"The whole family was quiet. Harold was quiet. ... He was a good kid," added Mrs. Behlke.

Subhead

The Army never gave up looking for Pfc. Kenner and the other missing G Company members, but for years there were no leads to their whereabouts. Then, in August 1987, an anonymous individual recovered remains from a secondary burial site in the northwest area of Kiekberg Wood, about two miles south of Groesbeek and seven miles southeast of Nijmegen.

From there, the United States Army Memorial Affairs Activity-Europe received the remains from a Dutch search-and-recovery team, and in 1992 turned them over to the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL) in Hawaii. A Dutch priest and Groesbeek museum curator named Father Gerard Thuring believed the remains were of one of the five MIA G Company members, specifically 1st Lt. Joseph F. Myers.

CIL determined that the remains - virtually the entire skeleton was found - were most likely that of a male of indeterminate race who was 17 to 23 years of age, between 64 and 70 inches tall and had a probable fracture on the left forearm at or near the time of death. However, it was not 1st Lt. Myers, the lab concluded.

The remains were returned to the Netherlands in 2001, but, five years later, CIL decided they should be further examined for comparison with the other missing G Company members. That's when Mrs. Behlke and her brother were asked to submit DNA samples.

Using that, and the results of the previous examination, including available dental records, the lab eventually came to the conclusion that the remains were Pfc. Kenner's. A few months ago, Richard Kenner received the news from Sgt. Hinkle.

"It was a shock," Mr. Kenner said.

Whether the other four missing members of G Company are ever found remains to be seen. But at least one family has achieved a sense of closure after all these years, Sgt. Hinkle said.

"This is my first one of these cases, and it was an easy one to get broken into," he said. "I'm honored to do it."

Family: Son of the late Henry and Pearl Kenner; two siblings, Henry and Ruth, both deceased

Military background: Pfc. Kenner joined the Army at age 18 in 1943. A member of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment's G Company, he fought in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands in September of 1944. On Sept. 30, 1944, he and four other men from his company went missing in action. He was 20 years old at the time.

His remains were discovered in 1987, but weren't identified as his until a few months ago. On July 29, about 50 members of his family will attend his funeral with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. He'll receive the following posthumous honors: Purple Heart; Army Good Conduct Medal; American Campaign Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars and Bronze Arrowhead Device; World War II Victory Medal; Glider Badge; Honorable Service Lapel Button-World War II; French Croix de Guerre; Belgium Gourragere; and Netherlands Orange Lanyard.

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